


quiet time

by Merideath



Category: Captain America (Movies), The Avengers (Marvel Movies), Thor (Movies)
Genre: Awkward Flirting, Banter, F/M, Fluff, Introvert Darcy Lewis, Pre-Relationship, Safehouses, the Barton family
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-12-12
Updated: 2017-12-12
Packaged: 2019-02-14 01:16:27
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 550
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12996663
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Merideath/pseuds/Merideath
Summary: She has no business being in his room...but it’s the only calm in a storm of hawk feathers.





	quiet time

**Author's Note:**

> Ficlet prompted by a gif on tumblr created by lovethefic. 
> 
> My muse has been pretty dormant since the last ficlet I posted. Depression has been winning more than I have. That and my stomach is being an utter jerk. If I don’t get anything posted before the new year I just want you to know I am very thankful for all of your kudos and sweet words. I wish you all the best over the holidays.

“I can go find somewhere else to hide,” Darcy says, curling her toes in the fuzzy red and white candy-striped socks Nat gave her. She slides a old giftcard between the pages of the book she’s been losing herself in while camped out in Steve’s room.

Her stomach churns with guilt for sneaking in and making herself feel at home. Not that the safe house felt anything like home, not like her parents’ house or the little closet she had in Jane and Thor’s place back in London.

“No, don’t,” Steve says, leaning into the wall. “I get the wanting to hide thing. This whole situation is my fault.”

“From what I’ve seen, it’s really not,” Darcy says. “If you didn’t make the choices you did then none of us would be in this house.”

“The same people you’re hiding from in my bed?”

“You make it sound so dirty, Cap,” Darcy says, a drop of heat rising up from her chest to warm her face. A nervous smile pulls at her lips.

“I’m not that anymore,” Steve says, crossing his arms over his chest. His eyes drop to the book laying on the bedspread and the tangle of a dingy grey bra beside Darcy’s hip.

“Sorry.” Darcy grimaces, grabbing her bra and stuffing it under the edge of her sweater. “And I’m not hiding from the Barton hawk-lets I’m sharing a room with.”

“I can talk to Clint-“

“Nah, I’m fine. My wizened little introvert heart just needed some recharge time away from the Barton rugrats...and it’s not every girl that gets to say she’s been for a roll in _Steve Rogers’_ sheets.” Darcy waggles her eyebrows above the frames of her glasses but she can’t quite meet his eyes.

“Honestly I just needed a bit of quiet time.” Darcy shrugs her shoulders and toys with the edge of the plastic card sticking out of the book. Her stomach feels like a knot of awkward vulnerability. Ugh, worst. “Besides that whole board games thing Nat, Sam, and Barnes have going on is weird as Hel.”

“I know,” Steve says, shaking his head. A bemused smile twitches at the corners of his mouth. “That might be the same reason I’m up here.”

“Our fearless leader is afraid of Scrabble?”

“They’ve moved on from Scrabble after Buck threw the dictionary on the fire. Think they’re on Apples to Apples. Clint says they can’t play something--Cards Against Heroes?--till the kids go to bed.”

“Oh god,” Darcy snorts, curling a sweater covered fist over her mouth.

“That bad, huh?”

“No,” Darcy lies. “Maybe we can both hide up here for a little while?” She scoots over on the bed, taking the quilt with her.

“I don’t think-”

“Then don’t,” she huffs, rearranging the pillows and quilt into an acceptable nest. Dropping her bra over the side of the bed, Darcy opens her book and skims halfway down the page to the last sentence she read. “I don’t bite.”

Steve walks across the room and grabs a battered Moleskine notebook and a stubby pencil from the top of the dresser. “Maybe I do,” he says dryly.

“...whaa?” Darcy says blinking up from her book.

“Nothing,” Steve rumbles.

…

_Fifty-three minutes later…_

“Auntie Naaaat, we found Darcy. She’s upstairs sleeping with Uncle Steve.”

**Author's Note:**

> The last few books I’ve read have been Neil Gaiman’s Norse Mythology, assorted fairy tales and Dealing with Dragons by Patricia C. Wrede. I imagine Darcy is reading a battered copy of Dealing with Dragons or a book of Norse Mythology for a paper she’s writing.


End file.
